Charles Dugan, Father of Fayetteville Arkansas, charged with infant murder

A 26-year-old sleepwalker in Arkansas has been charged with the murder of his 4-week-old daughter after giving conflicting stories about how the infant died.

Fayetteville man Charles Dugan was booked into the Washington County Detention Center Thursday afternoon with an unrelated battery charge and later charged with infanticide that occurred in August, according to the report. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

In a police report obtained by Democrat-Gazette, Officers described the chilling scene they found when they were called to Dugan’s apartment at 8:55 p.m. on August 29. The report said the girl was in “cardiac arrest” and taken to the Hospital. Children’s Arkansas, Northwest to be declared dead.

Dugan initially told police he had placed his daughter in the crib with a bottle of milk in his mouth only then went to the bathroom and returned ten minutes later to find the infant “choking”, reporting police report said. Unable to connect to 911, the father said he went to a neighbor’s apartment, who called 911 and tried CPR.

The Daily Beast reached out to many of Dugan’s neighbors who were occupying the two-story outdoor brick apartment building.

However, three months after the baby’s death, the medical examiner’s office ruled it a “murder”, citing “severe trauma” to the head “with the contribution of recent rib fracture,” according to the local CBS affiliate 5 News.

Taken back for questioning by the police, the father’s story changed.

“Dugan said he fell asleep with the child on his chest and believed she had fallen to the floor,” the police report said. “Dugan is not sure if the child hit the coffee table near the sofa or landed directly on the floor but said he woke up because the child was screaming on the floor. He went on to say that the incident happened 30-45 minutes before he put the baby in her crib.”

Days later, the baby’s mother threw another wrench at the construction site when she told investigators that Dugan, her husband, was sleepwalking and had previously “smashed the body.”[ed]Hers while sleepwalking.

“Dugan told investigators he did not remember whether he was sleepwalking when the infant was injured.” Democrat-Gazette report, citing police reports. Police did not shed further light on the veracity of the sleepwalking claim.

Dugan is awaiting trial at the Washington County Jail and will not allow to post bail. The Fayetteville Police Department did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.